DOCSLIB.ORG

Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron Or Essential Feature?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Gerschewski, Johannes Article — Accepted Manuscript (Postprint) Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron or Essential Feature? Perspectives on Politics Provided in Cooperation with: WZB Berlin Social Science Center Suggested Citation: Gerschewski, Johannes (2018) : Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron or Essential Feature?, Perspectives on Politics, ISSN 1541-0986, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Vol. 16, Iss. 3, pp. 652-665, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1537592717002183 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/218835 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron or essential feature? Johannes Gerschewski [Please cite as: Gerschewski, Johannes, 2018, Legitimacy in Autocracies: Oxymoron or Essential Feature?, In: Perspectives on Politics, 16:3, pp. 652-665] Abstract: Legitimacy is a key concept in political science. It has deep normative roots in democratic theory and refers usually to righteous, just, fair, and therefore acceptable rule. However, non- democracies also try to create a following among their citizens. They also engage in justifying their rule through politicization, be it of religion, ethnicity, or ideologies ranging from left- wing communism to right-wing nationalism. Against this backdrop, this essay poses the question: does it make sense to use the concept of legitimacy for both types of regimes, democracies and autocracies alike? Or, do we overstretch the concept when transplanting it to the non-democratic realm? And, empirically, how can we assess to what degree a non- democracy is viewed as legitimate by its citizens? The essay aims therefore at (1) defining what legitimacy and legitimation is in autocratic settings; (2) drawing a semantic map of rival concepts like support, trust, and loyalty; and (3) tackling concrete challenges in measuring this elusive concept. Keywords: Legitimacy, Authoritarianism, Concept-Building 1 1. Legitimacy in an unlikely context? Is there something like legitimacy in autocracies1? Particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, this was a hotly debated question when scholars disagreed about the nature of Soviet-type regimes. While one camp argued that the communist regimes do indeed create legitimacy among its citizens, the other camp criticized these accounts for concept stretching and for neglecting the normative roots of the term legitimacy (e.g. Feher and Rigby, 1982; Pakulski 1986). For critics, there was no such thing as legitimacy in autocracies, let alone in communist regimes. This debate is not an outdated debate among old-fashioned scholars and Kremlinologists. Instead, it is a timely endeavor that has not lost its relevance for political scientists and practitioners. Around the world, we currently observe a rise of autocratic leaders that claim to be legitimated by their people. Ranging from Vladimir Putin in today’s Russia, to the general secretaries of China’s one-party-rule, but also to political leaders like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey and Viktor Orbán in Hungary that gradually slide into authoritarianism, all of them claim to be entitled to rule by their citizens. The question of whether there is something like legitimacy in autocracies has also resurfaced in academia. Today, we know more about the inner workings of non-democratic regimes. In recent years, social sciences observed a renaissance in the study of comparative authoritarianism (Geddes, 1999; Pepinsky, 2014). Key institutions have been analyzed: from political parties (Brownlee, 2007; Magaloni 2006; Smith, 2005), to elections (Schedler, 2013; Gandhi and Lust-Okar, 2009), from parliaments (Gandhi, 2008; Gandhi and Przeworski, 2007) to informal power sharing arrangements (Svolik, 2009, 2012; Arriola, 2009; Magaloni, 2008). These institutions are understood to be crucial for autocratic rule. 1 There is a terminological debate about the differences between authoritarian and autocratic regimes. I perceive autocracy as the umbrella term that unites different forms of authoritarian, sultanistic, but also totalitarian regimes. As such, it is closest to mark the antipode to democracy. 2 Within this renaissance, a new strand of research has picked up the old legitimacy debate and asked whether autocratic regimes – besides using repressive techniques and co- opting potential elites – do stabilize their rule by seeking the support of the people (Dukalskis and Gerschewski, 2017; Kailitz and Stockemer, 2015; Grauvogel and von Soest, 2014; Gerschewski, 2013; Holbig, 2013; Gilley, 2009). From a rational perspective, this would make sense for the autocratic regime: Repressing opposition is a costly endeavor – at least in the long run. Repression creates counterproductive incentives as it spikes protest. From the autocrat’s perspective, these unintended consequences need to be avoided (Davenport, 2007). These researchers argue therefore that autocratic regimes need to legitimate their rule in order to maintain stable over a longer time period. Unless the regimes are mere kleptocracies or sheer tyrannies, they need to furnish a persuasive raison d’etre. In this light, this conceptual essay analyzes the capacity of the concept “legitimacy” to travel to the non-democratic realm. It poses the following questions: Is legitimacy the proper concept for social scientists to describe that autocratic rulers seek the support of the people? Or, do we overstretch the concept (and even fall in the trap of autocratic leaders) when we apply it to non-democratic rule? In other words, is “legitimacy in autocracy” an oxymoron, a “wooden iron”, or does it refer to an essential and stabilizing feature of autocratic rule? And finally, if legitimacy is indeed the proper concept, how do we know it when we see it? The remainder of the essay is structured as follows. I will first argue how we can define such a concept for autocratic regimes. Based on this definitional discussion, I will draw a semantic map of neighboring concepts and discuss their respective strengths and weaknesses. I will then clarify where the differences between legitimacy in autocratic and democratic regimes lie. Lastly, the challenges posed by measurement will be exposed, followed by a brief conclusion. 3 2. Systematizing concept analysis: The Ogden-Richards triangle A good starting point for any kind of concept analysis is the Ogden-Richards triangle (Sartori, 1984, pp. 22-23; Gerring, 1999; Schedler, 2011). It displays a trilateral relationship between the given name of a concept, its meaning (intension), and its empirical referent (extension). Take the following intuitive example: A ‘table’ (name) has the minimal meaning of a raised levelness (intension) that refers e.g. to a range of empirically observable tables in a seminar room (extension). The relationship between these three corners of the triangle is not always as straight forward as in the above example. If we translate the basic linguistic triangle to the social science world, several challenges arise. Yet, a systematic diagnosis of a concept takes seriously the relationships between name, intension, and extension. Let us first consider the relationship between name and meaning. While according to the famous French linguist de Saussure the name is given arbitrarily and usually based on social convention, the relationship between the name and the intension can be plagued by conceptual ambiguity. A 1:1 relationship between a given term and its intension may have been desired since Aristotle’s classic works, but the majority of today’s linguists agree that language is much fuzzier. In particular, the polysemic nature of concepts (one word, many meanings) troubles the work of social scientists considerably. Concepts cannot be clearly distinguished from each other, but instead overlap and so leave room for multiple interpretations. Together with their neighboring concepts, concepts form “semantic fields” that can be mapped (Sartori, 1970; Freeden 1994). Moreover, the relationship between the name and the meaning of a concept can suffer from definitional shortcomings. In general, the definition must be as sharp and parsimonious as possible and the defining features should inhibit sufficient discriminatory power vis-à-vis other features. The set of defining features 4 should also be jointly exhaustive and should be established at the same level of abstraction. A further demand is that a definition should not
Recommended publications
  • Preventing the Spread of Violent Nationalism

    Preventing the Spread of Violent Nationalism

    ODUMUNC 2019 Issue Brief UN Security Council Addressing the Spread of Violent Nationalism ODU Model United Nations Society Introduction on international cooperation but differentiation, deliberately choosing conflict over consensus. The rising global appeal of nationalism is a The difficulty comes because of the great public challenge to the ability of the United Nations to appeal of nationalism. Emphasizing the solve problems. When Member States choose uniqueness and superiority of each nation, polices based on national superiority instead of nationalism often is the easiest way to unite the global cooperation, the UN loses the consensus largest number of people in a country’s borders. it requires to act effectively. Yet a growing It has enormous appeal to rising leaders in number of leaders find the political rewards of democracies especially, but also can be useful enhancing nationalism hard to resist. With for leaders of authoritarian governments, stronger nationalism comes a not just less ability seeking a way to enhance the legitimacy of their to solve international problems, but greater risk power. In every case, nationalism often is the of conflict and war. For the UN Security easiest way to strengthen a government, to win Council, coping with the rise of nationalism may elections and unify an electoral majority of the be essential to remaining relevant and effective. people. But it is possible? Nationalism has the advantage of unifying most The nationalism problem raises s fundamental or many of the people in a territory, making difficulties for the UN. The United Nations is them willing to sacrifice together on behalf of based on conflicting principles.
  • 1 Chinese Pragmatic Nationalism and Its Foreign Policy Implications

    1 Chinese Pragmatic Nationalism and Its Foreign Policy Implications

    1 Chinese Pragmatic Nationalism and Its Foreign Policy Implications Suisheng Zhao Graduate School of International Studies University of Denver Prepared for delivery at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 28-31, 2008 2 Introduction During the standoff over the US spy plane that collided with a Chinese jetfighter and landed on Hainan Island, off China’s coast, in 2001, Washington Post used the headline “New Nationalism Drives Beijing” for front-page story.1 Such a warning reflects that rising nationalism in China has fed the roiling sense of anxiety in many political capitals of Asian and Western countries about if a virulent nationalism has emerged from China's "century of shame and humiliation" to make China’s rise less peaceful and if the Chinese government has exploited nationalist sentiments to gain leverage in international affairs or if nationalism has driven Chinese foreign policy toward a more irrational and inflexible direction? This political concern is reflected also among scholars. Although some scholars have been cautious in exploring the limits of Chinese nationalism and whether Chinese nationalism is affirmative, assertive, or aggressive,2 some others have found a reckless nationalism driven by China's traditional sinocentrism and contemporary aspirations for great power status.3 For example, Peter Gries labels the rising nationalism in China as a new nationalism and argues that an emotionally popular nationalism empowered by “victim narratives” is “beginning to influence the making of Chinese foreign policy.”4 His argument echoes an earlier warning by Richard Bernstein and Ross Munro, "Driven by nationalist sentiment, a yearning to redeem the humiliations of the past, and the simple urge for international power, China is seeking to replace the United States as the dominant power in Asia."5 It is indeed not difficult to find evidences to support these warnings.
  • Max Weber and the Legitimacy of the Modern State

    Max Weber and the Legitimacy of the Modern State

    David Beetharn Max Weber and the Legitimacy of the Modern State Abstract: Max Weber's typology of Iegitimale 'Herrschaft' has provided the basis for the treatment of Jegitimacy in twentieth century sociology and political science. The thesis of the article is that this typology is a misleading tool for the analysis of the modern state, and especially for the comparative analysis of political systems. This is because of basic flaws in Weber's conceptualisation of Jegitimacy itself, and in his account of the norma­ tive basis of authority. The article offers an alternative, multi-dimensional, account of political Jegitirnacy, and suggests how it might be used to develop a typology of forms of 'Herrschaft' more appropriate to the analysis ofthe modern state. The argument of this article is that Weber's typology of legitimate 'Herrschaft' is fundamentally flawed as a basis for analysing political legitimacy, and especially the legitimacy of the modern state. If my argument is sound, then it has signifi­ cant consequences, in view of the fact that the large majority of sociologists and political scientists in the twentieth century who have written about legitimacy have either adopted the Weberian typology as it stands, or have used it as the basis for further developments of their own. Even those who have rejected it have failed to establish a wholly convincing alternative, so that Weber's typology is left holding the field, if only by default. I shall begin by briefly reviewing Weber's typology and the uses to which he put it. I shall then show why the categories he developed misrepresent the nature of legitimacy, and serve to confuse rather than elucidate its complexity.
  • How Do Non-Democratic Regimes Claim Legitimacy? Comparative Insights from Post-Soviet Countries

    How Do Non-Democratic Regimes Claim Legitimacy? Comparative Insights from Post-Soviet Countries

    Inclusion of a paper in the Working Papers series does not constitute publication and should limit in any other venue. Copyright remains with the authors. Inclusion of a paper in the Working Papers serve to disseminate the research results of work in progress prior publicaton encourage exchange ideas and academic debate. Working GIGA GIGA Research Programme: Legitimacy and Efficiency of Political Systems ___________________________ How Do Non-Democratic Regimes Claim Legitimacy? Comparative Insights from Post-Soviet Countries Christian von Soest and Julia Grauvogel No 277 August 2015 www.giga-hamburg.de/workingpapers GIGA Working Papers 277/2015 Edited by the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies Leibniz‐Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien The GIGA Working Papers series serves to disseminate the research results of work in progress prior to publication in order to encourage the exchange of ideas and academic debate. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presenta‐ tions are less than fully polished. Inclusion of a paper in the GIGA Working Papers series does not constitute publication and should not limit publication in any other venue. Copy‐ right remains with the authors. GIGA Research Programme “Legitimacy and Efficiency of Political Systems” Copyright for this issue: © Christian von Soest, Julia Grauvogel WP Coordination and English‐language Copyediting: Melissa Nelson Editorial Assistance and Production: Kerstin Labusga All GIGA Working Papers are available online and free of charge on the website <www.giga‐hamburg.de/workingpapers>. For any requests please contact: <workingpapers@giga‐hamburg.de> The GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising from the use of information contained in this Working Paper; the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author or authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute.
  • A Defense of Max Weber's Standard of Political Legitimacy

    A Defense of Max Weber's Standard of Political Legitimacy

    A&K Analyse & Kritik 2017; 39(2):295–323 Amanda R. Greene* Legitimacy without Liberalism: A Defense of Max Weber’s Standard of Political Legitimacy https://doi.org/10.1515/auk-2017-0017 Abstract: In this paper I defend Max Weber's concept of political legitimacy as a standard for the moral evaluation of states. On this view, a state is legitimate when its subjects regard it as having a valid claim to exercise power and authority. Weber’s analysis of legitimacy is often assumed to be merely descriptive, but I argue that Weberian legitimacy has moral significance because it indicates that political stability has been secured on the basis of civic alignment. Stability on this basis enables all the goods of peaceful cooperation with minimal state violence and intimidation, thereby guarding against alienation and tyranny. Furthermore, I argue, since Weberian legitimacy is empirically measurable in terms that avoid controversial value judgments, its adoption would bridge a longstanding divide between philosophers and social scientists. 1 Introduction All states seek to be legitimate. But identifying a standard for the political legiti- macy of states is notoriously difficult, and past attempts at a philosophical defini- tion of legitimacy have faced a number of challenges. Views that base legitimacy on the protection of rights are charged with making imperialistic value judgments, due to their ahistorical reliance on liberal democratic values. Views that base le- gitimacy on individual welfare are charged with an overly narrow view of the aims of politics. Meanwhile, there is a growing chasm between philosophers who theo- rize about what legitimacy is and social scientists who study and measure it.
  • Nationalism, Legitimacy and Hegemony in Transboundary Water Interactions

    Nationalism, Legitimacy and Hegemony in Transboundary Water Interactions

    www.water-alternatives.org Volume 13 | Issue 2 Allouche, J. 2020. Nationalism, legitimacy and hegemony in transboundary water interactions. Water Alternatives 13(2): 286-301 Nationalism, Legitimacy and Hegemony in Transboundary Water Interactions Jeremy Allouche Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK; [email protected] ABSTRACT: This article examines how discourses of water nationalism are used to justify and legitimise a state’s water policy both domestically and internationally and how that discourse constitutes a battleground of ideas and power in transboundary water interactions. Most literature on hydropolitics takes the social construct of the nation state as a given but the construct reveals a certain degree of fragility. For this reason, legitimacy, both domestic and global, is a crucial factor in understanding these transboundary water disputes. Water-related slogans and landscape symbols can be used to reinforce the legitimising effects of these discourses and are employed as an ideology for consolidating hegemony at the transboundary level. These discourses, however, are also contested both domestically and globally. This paper uses three specific case studies around dam building projects – the Merowe Dam in Sudan, the Rogun Dam in Tajikistan and the Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey – to identify how these discourses create different types of transboundary water interactions. KEYWORDS: Nation state construct, legitimacy, fragility, hegemony, transboundary water relations, hydropolitics INTRODUCTION Egypt and the great river that flows through it were inseparable in the eyes of Herodotus, who declared that "Egypt is the Nile, and the Nile is Egypt" (Herodotus, 2013). The ancient sage’s assertion testifies to the influence the river has had on the identity of the inhabitants of its banks for thousands of years, and the wisdom is arguably still applicable today.
  • The Principles of Embedded Liberalism: Social Legitimacy and Global Capitalism Rawi Abdelal and John G

    The Principles of Embedded Liberalism: Social Legitimacy and Global Capitalism Rawi Abdelal and John G

    chapter 7 The Principles of Embedded Liberalism: Social Legitimacy and Global Capitalism Rawi Abdelal and John G. Ruggie In this essay we revisit the principles of “embedded liberalism” and argue for their relevance to the contemporary global economy. The most essential principle is the need for markets to enjoy social legitimacy, because their politi- cal sustainability ultimately depends on it. From this principle we analyze three current sets of practices and institutions in which ongoing crises of legitimacy demonstrate the need for a renewal of embedded liberalism and a revitalization of global governance. They are: the activities of transnational corporations, particularly with regard to core standards in labor and human rights; the orga- nization of the international financial architecture; and the formal rules and informal norms of international organizations. Learning the Lessons of Embedded Liberalism The post-1945 world economy embodied a social bargain. In the aftermath of the political and economic chaos of 1920s, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the Second World War—all of which together shattered the world order within the span of a single generation—policymakers sought to reorganize and rebuild the world economy by restoring open markets, promising to mitigate their adverse social consequences and thereby preempting societal demands, from both left and right, to replace markets altogether. The failure to strike such a compromise earlier had undermined international cooperation in trade and macroeconomic policy during the 1920s and 1930s, just as it had caused the collapse of the first era of globalization, circa 1870 to 1914. Influential scholars and policymakers began to make sense of how that first era of globalization had lost its way.
  • State Legitimacy, Fragile States, and U.S. National Security

    State Legitimacy, Fragile States, and U.S. National Security

    AP PHOTO/HADI MIZBAN PHOTO/HADI AP State Legitimacy, Fragile States, and U.S. National Security By the CAP National Security and International Policy Team September 2016 WWW.AMERICANPROGRESS.ORG State Legitimacy, Fragile States, and U.S. National Security By the CAP National Security and International Policy Team September 2016 Contents 1 Introduction and summary 5 The threat: Fragile states and the illicit world 8 The legitimacy challenge 12 Supporting legitimate states to counter the illicit world 17 International Compacts for Governance, Prosperity, and Security 23 Selection and compact creation 30 Prime countries for compact exploration 35 Conclusion 36 Endnotes Introduction and summary When the 45th president of the United States takes office in 2017, he or she will inherit a century-old mantle of global leadership. The new president will immedi- ately confront questions about America’s influence in the world and its ability to protect American interests and maintain global peace and stability. Today, some of the greatest threats to U.S. national security originate from the very forces of growing interconnectedness that the post-World War II order has enabled. For years, global businesses and expanding communications have been connecting the peoples and nations of the world together at faster and faster rates, and these changes have produced tremendous opportunities and prosperity in the United States and around the world. But at the same time, the rise of global interconnectedness means that it has become easier for transnational security threats—from terrorism to organized crime—to spread. These threats, which increasingly overlap to comprise an illicit world that parallels the state system, put at risk the international system that has upheld peace and prosperity.
  • Is Political Legitimacy Worth Promoting?

    Is Political Legitimacy Worth Promoting?

    3 IS POLITICAL LEGITIMACY WORTH PROMOTING? AMANDA R. GREENE All governments fear a loss of political legitimacy. This fear suggests that they consider political legitimacy to be something valuable— worth holding onto if they have it or restoring if it has been lost. But when there is a loss of political legitimacy, what exactly is lost? Is it necessarily something valuable? This chapter seeks to answer that question by developing and defending a new framework for political legitimacy. I am proposing a new framework partly in response to the fol- lowing puzzle. Assessments of political legitimacy are increasingly common in current affairs, and they are often highly consequen- tial. In these debates, everyone assumes that insofar as something lacks legitimacy, that’s a bad thing. The expression “that’s illegiti- mate” is treated as self- evidently negative by those of all political stripes, in all contexts. This way of talking makes “legitimacy” unusual among normative political concepts. Other political ide- als such as democracy and autonomy tend to attract both fans and critics. An expression like “that’s undemocratic” is the sort of complaint that is appropriate only in certain political contexts, e.g., a policy debate but not a criminal trial. Not so legitimacy. The lack of political legitimacy is regarded universally as a defect. At the same time, legitimacy is assumed to be attainable, rather than an unattainable regulative ideal. Things that claim political legitimacy for themselves are not regarded as claiming what is obviously impossible. We could not make sense of how frequently people claim political legitimacy for themselves, and expect to be 65 Knight_1p.indd 65 2/6/19 3:34 PM 66 Amanda R.
  • Legitimacy of Governments in the Age of Democracy

    Legitimacy of Governments in the Age of Democracy

    \\server05\productn\N\NYI\38-4\NYI404.txt unknown Seq: 1 4-JAN-07 9:33 LEGITIMACY OF GOVERNMENTS IN THE AGE OF DEMOCRACY JEAN D’ASPREMONT* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .................................. 878 R II. THE MULTIFACETED CONCEPT OF LEGITIMACY .... 881 R III. LEGITIMACY IN THE AGE OF DEMOCRACY AND THE MONOLITHIC CONCEPTION OF LEGITIMACY IN MAINSTREAM LEGAL DOCTRINE ................... 884 R IV. THE LEGITIMACY OF ORIGIN AND THE LEGITIMACY OF EXERCISE AND THEIR RESPECTIVE ROLES IN THE AGE OF DEMOCRACY ............................. 894 R A. The Need for a Distinction Between the Legitimacy of Origin and the Legitimacy of Exercise ........ 894 R 1. The Substantive Elements of Democracy ..... 895 R 2. Legitimacy in Practice ..................... 899 R a. Recognition of Governments ....... 901 R b. Accreditation of Delegates .......... 903 R c. Intervention by Invitation........... 906 R B. The Qualification and Disqualification Roles of Legitimacy and the Expanding Role of the Legitimacy of Exercise ......................... 909 R 1. The Qualification Role of the Legitimacy of Origin and the Disqualification Role of the Legitimacy of Exercise ..................... 909 R a. Qualification of Governments: The Legitimacy of Origin.............. .910 R * Lecturer in International Law, University of Leiden; Global Research Fellow, NYU Law School (2005-2006); Ph.D. University of Louvain (2005); LL.M. University of Cambridge (2001). This is a revised version of a paper first presented in September 2005 in the Global Fellows Forum organized by the Hauser Global Law School Program. This paper also draws on the doc- toral thesis of the author that will soon be published in the form of a book (Les Etats non democratiques´ et le droit international).
  • Essay on Legitimacy and Democracy

    Essay on Legitimacy and Democracy

    Izzivi prihodnosti / Challenges of the Future, Članek / Article Februar 2017, letnik / volume 2, številka / number 1, str. / pp. 16-26. Essay on legitimacy and democracy Patricia Kaplanova* Faculty of Organisation studies Novo mesto, Ulica talcev 3, 8000 Novo mesto, Slovenia [email protected] Abstract: Purpose and Originality: The aim of the paper is to deeply analyze a concept of legitimacy. Based on the classical works of Lipset and Habermas, the paper discusses conditions, efficiency, and presumptions on which a modern democratic political system stands. Method: The paper analyzes a relationship between positivist and normative understanding of legitimacy questioning a democratic political order. By a content analysis of two main theories of legitimacy, the paper examines a sense of democratic legitimacy in modern societies. Results: A legitimacy is a pillar of any democracy. From the structuralist point of view, in societies there are three main types of crises (economic, social, political), which are present constantly and interconnected by nature and implications. Each crisis creates a specific deficit and challenge for democracy. By overcoming, a stability of democracy is strengthened which makes a (crisis of) legitimacy inevitable. Society: In a time of post-truth politics and crisis of democracy, there is a lack of research dealing with a legitimacy of the democratic regime. By pointing out classical approaches to a stability of democracy, there should be elaborated a new construct of democratic legitimacy reflecting structural conditions of modern societies. This paper is trying to offer an insight into a normative understanding of this construction. Limitations / further research: A theoretical approach could be verified by an empirical research.
  • The Legitimacy of the State in Fragile Situations

    The Legitimacy of the State in Fragile Situations

    Norad Report 20/2009 Discussion The Legitimacy of the State in Fragile Situations Commissioned by Norad and French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation P.O. Box 8034 Dep, NO-0030 OSLO Ruseløkkveien 26, Oslo, Norway Phone: +47 22 24 20 30 Fax: +47 22 24 20 31 ISBN 978-82-7548-417-6 ISSN 1502-2528 Responsibility for the contents and presentation of findings and recommendations rests with the study team. The views and opinions expressed in the report do not necessarily correspond with those of Norad. Report for the OECD DAC International Network on Conflict and Fragility Final version The Legitimacy of the State in Fragile Situations Prepared by Séverine Bellina, Institute for Research and Debate on Governance – IRG Dominique Darbon, Africa Study Center – SciencesPo Bordeaux, CEAN Stein Sundstøl Eriksen, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs – NUPI Ole Jacob Sending, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs – NUPI/ Chr. Michelsen Institute – CMI February 2009 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION:......................................................................................................................................6 1 BASIC CONCEPTS..................................................................................................................................7 1-1 THE WESTERN STATE....................................................................................................................................7